Elements Of War
by Demetri Foxwood
Summary: Demon King threatens the world, three unlikely heroes rise.


Prologue

Long ago, there was once a powerful being, known as the Demon King Necross, who tried to rule over this world with his army of demons and other hideous creatures. Some had been human but had been lured to Necross with false hopes of salvation from famine, disease, even death; and then twisted and morphed into the beasts they are now. The people turned to the gods, praying, begging, and slaughtered many as sacrifices. The Gods finally intervened when Necross took the biggest temple of Heraldos, the God of Kings and the King of the Gods, as his castle; so they crafted the souls of three ultimate heroes and picked three humans worthy to bear them. The first hero was the Invictus Knight. A man with the strength of five men and courage beyond measure. He was given St. Neos' Harvest, a scythe with the ability to summon a legion of heavenly warriors. The second hero was the Shinobi a man gifted with almost god-like wisdom and speed that would shame the fastest of winds. He was gifted with the Gold Dragon Katana, with the power to summon a giant dragon-beast to obliterate his enemies. The third hero was the Arch Sage; a man blessed with an incredible intellect and magic power that surpassed all but the gods themselves. His weapon was Spiriot; a staff with the ability to use surrounding spiritual energy to increase his own power. The Heroes were also given the five elemental gems of power: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Soul. They confronted Necross at his castle on the island nation of Serida. The battle was fierce as people could here clashing metal and explosions from miles away. Finally, they were able to seal Necross into the temple. Then using a spell they returned the gems to the temples that were built for them. Their weary bodies died and their souls returned to the heavens. Unfortunately as time passed their story slowly faded into legend and the people forgot of the heroes except for the ones who had heard this story passed down from one generation to the next, our story starts nearly a hundred years later…

It was a dark and stormy night. The ocean waves were thrashing and throwing themselves at the stone that held the island of Serida above the water. The temple of Heraldos started to quake, then suddenly a red bolt of lightning struck the temple. All was silent for a while, but then an ear splitting roar erupted from the temple and a black mass of energy slithered into the sky and dissipated. Meanwhile in the Temple of Spirit a column of light sprang from the top shooting into the heavens punching a hole in the wall of black clouds. Not long after, a red, blue, green, and yellow beam shot towards the column twisting and spinning into a torrent of colors and power. Then it subsided as quickly as it had come; leaving a gaping hole in the clouds. Three last beams of light shot out in different directions. The first beam struck a man sleeping in a filthy cell. The second struck a man sleeping against a tree. The third struck a man asleep on a tavern counter…we start with the man in the cell

Demetri felt some one kicking him.

"Come on it's time for your next fight." The voice said. Demetri opened his eyes, and got up. His eyes were a deep red color, as if his irises were stained with the blood of the people he had killed. He put on a pair of crimson gauntlets and walked out into the arena; immediately the roar of thousands of spectators filled his ears. The smell of blood, sweat, fur, and death permeated the air; the smell of mortal combat. The crowd went silent as King Garasom on the balcony raised his arms.

"My good people of Dezchina I have a special treat for you. We have now come up with a new type of punishment for criminals; we have them fight in the arena, if they live, they can go free, if not…" he trailed off as the crowd flared up again. But the man raised his arms again.

"Now I present to you Baramos the Gypsy Gouger wanted in three kingdoms caught by the palace guard and to duel to the death with our very own champion Demetri!" the crowd roared yet again as the gate across from where Demetri was standing opened. A pale, muscle bound man with crazy, brown eyes bound in armor armed with a two handed sword and a small buckler shield. Demetri simply stared as Baramos looked at him, threw his head back and let out a howling laugh.

"Hahahahahahahahaha! I'll tear you apart!" he hollered; Demetri said nothing as his eyes narrowed into a furious glare and he started to slowly walk towards Baramos. Baramos brought down the sword in a vicious over head strike. Demetri merely knocked back the sword and jabbed him in the gut. Baramos tried to recover only to recieve another iron fist to his face. Baramos finally managed to get back far enough to take a few swings of his own only to have a stone faced Demtri deflect and land another cold iron fist to his face. The crowd roared and laughed at the criminal's futile attempts to strike down their Champion. Baramos finally let his crazed temper get the best of him as he raised his blade and rushed recklessly at Demetri then brought his sword down in a maniac downward strike. Demetri gripped the sword and wrenched out of his hands. He grasped the helpless Baramos by his throat and lifted him off the ground; pressing his massive body against the arena wall.

"Did you really kill all those people?" Demetri growled at him; the crazed look in Baramos's eyes grew brighter and he smiled sadistically

"Yeah, men, women, children, of course I had some fun with the women before I-" Before Baramos could finish Demetri's eyes flared to a bright fire red and he whispered;

"Then may Saint Neo have mercy on your soul..." Demetri then kicked up the sword and drove it through Baramos's stomach. Then Demetri slowly drew the blade from his gut and brought it up to his face and slashed him across; leaving a huge gash on him. He dropped Baramos who was screaming and grasping at his face; then Demetri savgely broke both of Baramos's arms which made him scream even louder. Demetri could hear the crowd chanting for the final blow. Demetri looked at the King who had given up making the decision because he already knew the outcome...death. He picked up his helpless victim by the neck and smashed him against the wall repeatedly until he was sure he had shattered his skull. Then he let out an almost demonic war cry and hurled the unfortunate criminal into the opposite wall, a hundred and twenty feet away. The crowd stood in stunned silence. Demetri just walked through the gate back to his cell. The other gladiators just sat and stared at him. He was the only truly feared gladiator because no matter who his opponent was he furiously destroyed them. If you ask him why he never spares his opponent his response is always "You dont become the Gladiator King by leaving people alive long enough to become enemies." They stared at him and he stared right back at them. Finally a skinny one, a new warrior who was probably just sold off and still very naive, was able to stand up and hesitantly hand Demetri a message that was bound in red ribbon.

"A Messenger came here with this for you." Demetri didn't even have to open it; he knew by the seal it was his master, Octavian, summoning him to his mansion.

A FEW HOURS LATER…

Demetri stood in front of Octavian's palatial manor. It had enormous pillars and was made out of marble and granite. He pushed open the huge Blackwood doors and traversed down the cavernous hall to Octavian's "Room of Indulgence" as he called it. Octavian was sitting in a gold chair lined with the finest red silk; he was a fat, pompous man of maybe fifty garbed in a red tunic. His two favorite harems Esmeralda, a fair skinned slender woman with chocolate brown hair, and Sarina, a tanned woman with the body of an hourglass and raven colored hair, were fawning all over him and feeding him chocolates. Demetri never had the privilege to experience the pleasures of the flesh so he saw the needless pursuit of men to these pleasures seemed trivial, pathetic even. Of course his best body guards, Ozmand, a rather large, bald man with muscles as big as his head and a mind the size of a nut, a capable warrior but not someone you would bring to the King's Sandstral Ball, carrying a rather large scythe standing to his right. On his left was Petris, a sinewy man with cropped blonde hair, a lethal assassin no doubt but also a coward and not fit to call himself a warrior, carrying a Dezchinan Crescent sword and a crossbow, were standing behind; both of them eying the harems; coveting them. Demetri bowed in front of Octavian;

"Ah Demetri, and how is my favorite warrior today?" Octavian asked;

"Fine, thank you master." Demetri muttered.

"I remember making a deal with you that if you became champion, I would release you." Octavian said, Demetri's heart started to race, he was so close to freedom!

"But you've made so much money I just can't bear to part with you, so im going to extend your contract for another ten years." Octavian slipped in.

"You can't do that!" Demetri exploded a flare of color in his eyes and face.

"Oh can't I?" Octavian spat angrily. Demetri raised his gauntlets and red sparks began to shoot from them. Octavian snapped his fingers and his two guards stepped forward. Petris took a shot at him with the bow. Demetri deflected the shot and started towards Petris but was cut off by Ozmand's giant scythe crashing down in front of him. He used the scythe as a launch pad to launch himself into the air; he flipped over Ozmand's head and landed behind Petris. Petris turned as fast as he could but Demetri snatched Petris' dagger and drove it into his chest, Petris fell to the ground screaming. Ozmand had dislodged his scythe and brought it down over Demetri's head. Demetri, with rage fueling his punch, managed to lodge his fist into Oz's chest and in a fit of sadism he crushed Oz's heart within his own chest. He dropped like a rock. Petris slowly rose to his feet and threw his crescent sword like a boomerang at Demetri's face, and collapsed having launched his final assault. Demetri bent back to avoid it, but the very tip of it caught on his face and left a long cut on his left cheek. Demetri caught it by its hilt and rammed the blade through Petris's head. The body twitched violently and then was still. Octavian trembled in his throne, having seen his best bodyguards disposed of so easily. Demetri turned to Octavian with menacing eyes that burned as though they contained the very fires of Inferno itself. Demetri lunged at Octavian and ripped him out of his chair; Demetri knelt over Octavian and raised his fist to deliver a fatal blow. Octavian closed his eyes as Demetri brought down his fist, but stopped before contact, Octavian slowly opened his eyes to see Demetri; his breathing was heavy from pure anger, and for a while he just stood there holding Octavian by his collar as Octavian sat there and whimpered. Finally, Demetri threw Octavian to the ground and stood up.

"No…you don't deserve to die at by my hands." He muttered as he walked over to Petris's body and ripped the sword out. Octavian sprang up and started running to the door as fast as his pudgy body would allow, he felt a few moments of fear, then a sharp jolt of pain, then nothing. Octavian slumped to the ground with the crescent blade protruding from his back.

"Contract Terminated." Demetri spat mockingly, as he lowered his arm. He turned and entered the room to his left and exited with a large bag of coins tied to his waist and another he held in his hand. He turned to Sarina and Esmeralda who were creeping around the throne to see the carnage. They looked up at Demetri and smiled. Sarina threw herself on Demetri, wrapping her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Demetri pushed her away and threw a bag of coins to them.

"There, you are free." He muttered before walking away; he ripped the scythe out of Ozmand's hand and stopped watching the color drain from the gauntlets onto the scythe as the hilt turned maroon and the blade to gold and took it with him suddenly a spear of energy shot straight through his arm and images of a black giant unleashing an unearthly roar and looked straight at Demetri. His eyes snapped open to see he had passed out in the hallway and had a massive headache. Demetri managed to scrape himself off the floor and left the palace. He walked down the main street and through the marketplace to the front gate. As he walked adults watched silently as he passed; kids flocked around him and gawked at his scars and battle damaged armor. Demetri smiled, for the first time in fifteen years, he smiled, and passed out some of the gold coins among them. They all ran away smiling and laughing. Demetri walked into the market and bought a sleeping spread, a satchel, and three days worth of food. Half of the gold he had left he dropped in front of a horrendously skinny man, with his head in his arms which sat on his knees, the man looked up and saw a huge pile of gold sitting in front of him and his face broke out in a wide, toothless grin. Demetri walked out of the city gates, donning his cloak, to where ever the road was going to take him he knew he was going to come back to this place but he hoped it wouldn't be soon…

The smell of salted pork, ale, and pipe smoke permeated the air, the flash of lightning, the boom of thunder, and the steady rhythm of rain beating on the roof. A bestial savagery and the cheering of comely lasses and fellow drunken patrons fueled his drunken swings and he felt the jarring sensation of wood meeting bone. Yes, Shamus was in another bar fight, just another night. As drunk as he was, years of street fighting had paid off and he took out the man and his friends.

Demetri stopped in front of the tavern. It had started raining after three days so he stopped at the closest village which he came to find was Narmur. Demetri had heard about this village from Octavian a few times he also had heard about the tavern from Octavian on several occasions. He looked up at the sign;

"The Honeypot Pub..." he drew the cloak closer around and stepped in.

Shamus dropped into a bar stool dropping the pole he had used to the ground. Two of the Honeypot girls Mary, a sweet young brunette with deep silver eyes and long chocolate brown braids, and Amy, a wild child with smooth oak brown eyes and medium length red hair tresses swarmed around him like bees to honey as they dabbed at his bruises and bloody lip. He smiled at the two beautiful girls attending him as they cooed and fawned on him. The Honeypot was famous for its wine, salted pork, and the five legendary Bar maidens. There was Lily, a gold haired, blue eyed angel who was on the stage with Axle, a skinny slightly foppish looking minstrel who was strumming away on his lyre while Lily's golden voice flowed through the room as Sonya, a slender dancing nymph of a girl from the Northern continent with white hair and piercing golden eyes dressed in her traditional dancing costume of her homeland a bright green bustier woven of lace and the fur of some beast with silver skin tight pants made of some strange rubbery material. and then there was Cassandra a sculpted, graceful, witty goddess with tapestries of raven black locks and an infectious smile she dipped and dodged around patrons as she served drinks and of course the icing on the cake was every girl in the Honeypot had curves that would make even the Cardinals forget the gods at least for the night, yes there was something for everyone. He looked back at the two girls beside him and smiled an almost too smug smile '_ah, its good to be the Alpha male_'. Just then Thaddeus, a former lumberjack and carpenter now in his fifties and barkeep and owner of the Honeypot, leaned over the counter sighing as some of the patrons dragged out their beaten comrades

"Thanks for not killin' the lot of them this time." He quipped sarcastically.

"Aye, no problem." Shamus managed to slur as Mary and Amy giggled. The tavern door swung open and a cloaked stranger, drenched with rain, walked in with his head down and his cloak wrapped around him, using his scythe as a make shift cane. The Stranger went to the table in the corner next to the fire and sat down. When he did a bit of Gladiator armor peeked out of his cloak; along with some battle scars. All was calm as the night continued for a while when suddenly another patron, a farmer of no more than about thirty two with dirty blonde hair, tan skin from all his time in the sun, and a muscular body, was at the stranger's table yelling

"What do you think you're doin', ay?" the farmer slurred,

"Easy Phineas, he looks like a real bruiser, even for you." warned one of the other barkeeps;

"Ah, go suck a goat!" Phineas yelled back, obviously extremely drunk,

'_Wow, he's drunker than me._' Shamus thought.

"You see that woman over there?" Phineas pointed, the Stranger leaned forward and Shamus turned to see Phineas's wife at their table, a young girl of maybe twenty five with dark auburn hair, a doll like face, and also tanned due to all the time in the sun, she was blushing, giggling and waving little flirts at the Stranger, every one knew that Phineas's wife was a strumpet, which is why everyone in the village is amazed that he hasn't kicked her out; Phineas had a love for that woman even Shamus, who doesn't believe in love in the least, had to admire.

"That's mah woman, and she's done nothing but look at ya since you walked in, so why don't you take your scarred, misshapen body and clear off?" Phineas yelled, slamming his fist on the table.

"You should leave me before you get hurt." The Stranger muttered;

"Oh aye, cas yer reel scary with yer big arse scythe ay?" Phineas shouted, slurring even worse; suddenly one of the stranger's hands flew out of the cloak, grabbed Phineas's head, and smashed it into the table. Not enough to kill him but enough to break his nose and send blood spattering all over the floor, not to mention send a crack through the table. Thaddeus groaned

"Well by the name Frivolty is it national Beat-a-Patron night?" he yelled throwing up his hands and heading to the back. Shamus laughed but it ended rather quickly when the girls started to drift towards this Stranger in starstruck attraction but they did so in a way that Shamus recognized and he chuckled

"Ah yes, the Honeycomb..." he said. He had seen this trick before. When a potential high spender came in, of which this stranger looked with his gold bladed weapon, the girls would come at him in scattered yet connected times as they tried seducing, sympathizing, anything to get them to drink and spend and it worked like a charm for no one could resist the charms of five beautiful women. Mary tried first with her patented coy girl act

"Hiya! Welcome to the Honeypot! I'm Mary what's your name?' she leaned over and subtly placed her arms behind her breasts pushing them slightly accentuating them as she smiled brightly and started twirling one of her braids around her finger. The Stranger said nothing and Mary tilted her head;

"Hello? You awake?" Mary reached over and tried pulling the hood but The Stranger snapped his eyes to her revealing his flaring red eyes from under the silhouetting shade of the hood. Mary froze mesmerized for a second before she slowly slipped away clinging on to Shamus again looking a little shaken, probably from rejection Shamus figured. About an hour later Lily tried with her ditzy fawning, she was pretty good at it as she was actually a bit ditzy but she too walked away shaken after just one look. One after one they dropped; Sonya with her "Private Dance" offer but he merely turned her away with a wave of his hand, Amy tried to pull him into a dance but he snapped back and seemed to retreat a little further into the corner. Now it was down to Cassandra, she was the Ace in the hole cause she was the only one with enough wit and mental flexibility to bend to the circumstances she was also the most experienced girl. She also was the most guarded because she was Thaddeus's daughter. She sat next to the Stranger setting a pint of ale in front of him.

"First one's on me hon, you like like you need it." she said flatly; he gave her the same look he had to the other girls but Cassandra didn't move, she looked at the scarred metal and skin peeking out from under his cloak;

"A gladiator?" she asked simply, The stranger merely nodded.

"How long have you been in?" she asked, the Stranger looked down at the ale just watching the brew bubble and foam finally he replied;

"My whole life..." The Stranger sighed, took up his scythe, and brushed past Cassandra as he approached Thaddeus keeping his head down

"I'll take a room for the night…and, sorry about the table…" The Stranger muttered dropping a stack of gold pieces on the counter.

"What's your name stranger?" asked Thaddeus. The Stranger hesitated then took the hood off and revealed a crop of slicked brown hair, and his eyes, Thaddeus looked shocked when he looked into his eyes, "You're…you're…"

"Yes I am Demetri." The stranger said, loud enough for all to hear and all was silent as everyone stared at the Stranger, Demetri turned and walked up the stairs to one of the rooms. Shamus knew to avoid people like that but still there was something…almost _familiar_…about this man, well of course every one's heard of Demetri, The Gladiator King, a man who was different than your average warrior, even his name was unique as in no one else had that name. Shamus hopped off the bar stool and walked up to his own room to try and sleep off his drunken stupor…

Kimamaru knelt beside a trail left by his target; it looked like a giant snake had slithered through the area. He took a pinch of the soil and drew it to his nose.

"Hmm, it must be the Sliztilian." He muttered thoughtfully, he turned to his small group of fellow demon hunters; "alright we'll set up camp and continue this tomorrow." They all muttered and grumbled in agreement and started unloading the carriage. Kimamaru took the first watch; he sat against a tree and laid his sword across his lap with his hand still firmly gripped on the hilt, ready to draw it at anytime. Sliztilians are extremely clever creatures being one third snake, one third lizard, and one third human. His suspicions were correct because a moment later a Sliztilian with sewer green scales and sinister serpentine eyes came crashing through the woods wielding a Scarlian broadsword, like a falchion but bigger and less curved. The foul creature swung its massive blade ferociously, Kimamaru ducked up, down, left to right. Then he saw an opening between the animal's arms and thrust his sword right through its heart. The creature writhed and hissed in pain. Kimamaru twisted the sword and pulled up so that the blade ran through the beast's body like a hot knife through butter. The Sliztilian's body slumped to the ground with a sickening splat as its entrails splashed out onto the earth. As his troupe rushed around the corner they saw Kimamaru standing with the repulsive creature's head in his hands and his head down when they came closer they saw he had fallen asleep and was snoring. Angus, a big beefy man with flaming red hair and one gold tooth walked up and shook Kimamaru until he woke up. Kimamaru looked around as if he had developed a momentary amnesia then he turned to Angus.

"Burn the body, tomorrow we go back, collect the money, and leave." He said, leaning back against the tree.


End file.
